Richard Taverna had finished with his usual workout at the YMCA and was headed back home to 107th Street when he noticed the blue Chanel purse sitting against the wall of the northbound 1 train platform at 66th and Broadway around 11:30 on Thursday morning.

“I picked it up and had a quick look to see if there was any identification with it,” the retiree, 63, tells WSR. “I just saw a piece of paper with some Russian writing on it.” Knowing there’s not an MTA agent posted on that side of the station, he popped the purse in his gym bag, planning to investigate further or perhaps bring it to the southbound platform agent the next morning.

“Then I got tied up and forgot about it until I was getting ready for bed.” Taverna pulled out the purse and discovered that the piece of paper was actually an envelope containing 100 100-dollar bills. He told his wife he needed to go the police with the money. She quipped – noting the Russian script – that maybe Robert Mueller should be his first call.

Taverna took the purse and its contents to the 20th Precinct on Friday morning, but not before taking a snapshot of the greenbacks laid out on his kitchen table.

Isn’t it sad to think that the UWS-UL-UPC (UpperWestSide-UltraLibrul-UltraPC) crowd is so worried lest someone DARE offend Russia, a dictatorship determined to destroy us by sowing disinformation in order to disrupt our elections.

It is not about offending Russia, it is about offending an idnvidual who happens to be Russian. Your statement is similar to Trump’s enabling people spit out hate against Mexicans and other Latin nations. You decided that offending a Russian individual is totally ok. It is not ok to bash anyone solely because of their nationality or ethnicity in case you think xenophobia is ok if applied to certain nations only.

So the fact it was in an expensive bag signifies that this person didn’t need it as the “rest of the humanity?” What if she was trying to help a sick relative? But even if she wasn’t, who are you to decide how to spend someone’s money?

Huh? You can take any amount from the bank if you are closing the account. You are allowed to take much smaller than 10k amount in a lot of banks. You can take bigger than 10k in lots of other banks as well.

And the statement about UK government being interested in transactions bigger than 10k? Where did that come from? Most people in the area monthly credit card bills are greater than that. This is some jealous xenophobic comment.

If you look at the regulations in place to prevent money laundering, cash transactions over a certain level must be reported to the government in most jurisdictions. In the US, $10,000 is an important threshold (or smaller transactions that add up to $10,000). It isn’t xenophobic . . . .

Amazing! First, this man must have had a full fledged shock when he opened the bag has picked up casually in the subway, and then taken it to the policer station untacked. Second, what was a woman doing carrying $10,000 in cash to Russia…

I agree with Penelope…
What was she doing with all that cash?
As for the cops telling her when she comes back, we assume she’s going to make it back…
You don’t go home to to Russia empty handed with a missing cargo like that,

An only in NYC story.
Sad to say but me think 5 out of 10 people would have kept the $$$.
To answer a few questions raised here:
Why wouldn’t the woman carry cash to Russia? Plenty of people traveling to the US carry cash, and the good old green buck is good all over the planet.
happy Holiday & New Year one and all.

As befitting New York State, a place where almost everything outside of breathing is regulated or whatever; no, you cannot “find” things of great value and legally keep.

Laws are quite clear:

“any person who finds lost property of the value of twenty dollars or more or comes into possession of property of the value of twenty dollars or more with knowledge that it is lost property or found property shall, within ten days after the finding or acquisition of possession thereof, either return it to the owner or report such finding or acquisition of possession and deposit such property in a police station”
…
“any person who shall refuse or wilfully neglect to comply… shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars or imprisonment not exceeding six months or both.”

Of course people find and keep things on streets, buses, in taxis, or whatever of New York all the time. But that doesn’t change the law, and if somehow caught the owner of said property could press charges.

Consider also many subway stations have cameras. Do you really want to see yourself in one of those NYPD news media releases about a “wanted” person?

IIRC the woman had already alerted NYPD/MTA about loss of bag. All they would have to do is same as with other “crimes”. Start looking at footage from cameras within subway station, or various buildings.

A man carrying a Chanel bag wouldn’t be hard to pick out of a crowd.

Will grant you this is a tough call. So many people living paycheck to paycheck, and it being the holidays. Can’t say I’d blame someone of they found that purse and had themselves a Merry Christmas.

“any person who finds lost property of the value of twenty dollars or more or comes into possession of property of the value of twenty dollars or more with knowledge that it is lost property or found property shall, within ten days after the finding or acquisition of possession thereof, either return it to the owner or report such finding or acquisition of possession and deposit such property in a police station or police headquarters of the city where the finding occurred or possession was acquired”. NY Personal Property Law section 252 subd. 1.

The same statute provides that any person

“who shall refuse or wilfully neglect to comply with the provisions of subdivision one or subdivision two of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars or imprisonment not exceeding six months or both.” (Subd. 3).

So, for whatever it’s worth, you’re required to turn in found property worth more than $20 to the police, if you can’t identify the owner. It’s a misdemeanor, with possible fine or imprisonment, not to turn it in.

How often has this been enforced? I have no idea. But turning in lost property is not simply a moral decision to be made by the finder — it’s the law.

Joy, thank you for the article. Good to see our neighbor doing the right thing. Just like finding the purse was a test for Richard, the article has become a test for many of the readers. I would like to commend Jen for standing up tirelessly to several commentators expressing their vile opinions. She and EricaC called those people out while it was very convenient to just do nothing ( as seen in the lack of comments sharing Jen’s view point ). Gloating about someone’s losses (*especially* based on the nationality or perceived wealth and/or suggesting how to spend their money) is un-American and, hopefully, unwelcome in this neighborhood.